The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-02-11

London Times said that never since the world
began did any woman score such triumph
as Josephine Butler, and although it was
the Right Honorable Mr.. Stanfeld that
stood forward and made the motion, still it
was that true, loyal heart back of him that
had reached the homes of England. That
voice which had penetrated the ear and the
heart Of the motherhood Of the nation, had
so aroused them that they were ready to do
this work by the mouths of their represen-
tatives. Josephine Butler, then, will sand
forth in the history Of the Social Purity
movement as its pure and blessed prophet,
In our own country, Mr.. and Mrs. Powell,
of New York, Mrs. Abbie Hopper Gibbons,
the daughter of Isaac T. Hopper, DIR. Black
well, and other men and women have been
engaged in work parallel to that of Mrs.
Butler, and the homes of the nation are not
aware Of how carefully and sedulonsly these
good and true men and women are guard
ing against the licensing of the worst Of
evils even i'll our own progressive land.
The attempt is made Legislature after Leg
sature, but these lynx-eyed protectors of
the home are cvermore upon the war-path.
Now, friends, passing on from the con-
sideration of this central figure of the
movement, | ask you to look at another.
| speak now briefly of the White Cross
movement itself Its pioneer is Miss
Eilice Hopkins, of Cambridge, England,
New Brighton Road, in the shadow of the
grand old University; her father the Presi-
dent of the British Scientific Association;
woman of the highest culture, leader
among the women OF the Church Of Eng
land, who going early to London, dedi-
Gated her life to the endeavor to reform
these outcast women, and who finally
came to the conclusion that She only way
ont was an appeal to the chivalry of
men. She took the position that since
everybody will admit that all women ought
to be pure, everybody must admit that all
men ought to be virtuous. [Applause] ].
She took this other position, that to form
is far easier than to reform. She studied
the Statistics and found in those carefully
kept figures ofthe European Life Insurance
Societies, that the period of greatest risk
in the life of boyhood, is from fourteen to
twenty five years. At twenty-five it cul-
inmates, the risk is greatest and the deaths
most numerous in proportion to the num-
Der, for the reason that by that time the
nicotine habit, the alcohol habit and the
habit OF impurity have begun to show
their sequel in the deterioration of the
body aud the marring of the souls of
those WHO are the best beloved OF wo-
mems homes, and who meant to be SO good
and pure when they were boys in the bor-
ders Of the home where their mothers
spoke to them of pure and noble life.
And so Ellice Hopkins said ''We must
strive to bring it about that boy shall
have half a chance, at least, of pure
and noble life. We must come to them
with the arrows of thought keying up
.their lax and untaught opinions to concert
pitch. We must give them definite and
specific teaching. We must arouse the
chivalry Of the young manhood, so that
what he would be ashamed of IN his sister
with the same respect he would treat his
mother he shall learn o treat all women,
and the chivalry of ancient days, its in
sigma, its heraldry and poetry was invoked
by this true woman to help along the fight
of the White Cross. But she knew that to
have man stand at the head of the move
ment would be far more tactical measure
and so she secured the championship of DIR.
Lightfoot, Bishop of Durham, one of the
grandest among the English clergy, a man
the first we have known as the President
of the White Cross Army.
am glad, friends, to say to you that
this movement is being taken up by the
clergy of our own country, and that the
Episcopal Church stands in the very fore
front of the battle, and that at its recent
triennial convention in Chicago it endorsed
the movement and took measures to put it
on practical footing in all the parishes
everywhere. | am glad, also, that in Eng
land twelve hundred of the clergy of the
Methodist Church took a similar position.
And in America one conference at least
my own conference, the Rock River, with
nearly three hundred ministers, has estab-
the White Cross, and the Theological Sem
mary in my own town, of Evanston, the
very first White Cross Society of which |
am aware that has ever been formed by
Theological students, is now in the full
tide Of successful operation. So that just
where it ought to begin, at the affairs of
God, this cause is being cherished on both
sides of the water.
Now, desire to read to you the White
Cross Pledge. We have had it placed up
on card board, and we have there the cru
saders' shield and the white cross with its
emblematic thought, We have the flag of
our nation The pine is the emblem of the
north; the palm is the emblem of the
south, and setting those symbols forth with
the star of Hope, the star of Bethlehem
over all, l read our White Cross Pledge, to
be taken only by young men:
eli promise by the help of God to
treat all women with respect, and endeav-
or to protect them from wrong and degra-
dation.
2--I promise to endeavor to put down
I